


the smell of her skin

by akamine_chan



Category: due South
Genre: Community: ds_snippets, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-11-02
Updated: 2008-11-02
Packaged: 2017-10-05 09:11:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akamine_chan/pseuds/akamine_chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>But tonight, on a rooftop overlooking Chicago, the pain kept him awake until dawn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the smell of her skin

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the LiveJournal Community ds_snippets
> 
> Notes: Many thanks to lovely betas Luzula and Keerawa for their help. Additionally, superduper thanks to Sionnain for a lightning fast beta in spite of her iPhone's attempts to thwart us. All remaining mistakes are mine, all mine.
> 
> Prompt: Mars

Ray couldn't sleep. After hours of tossing and turning, he admitted defeat and went up to the roof to get some cool air.

Next to the door was the telescope used by the boy in 3G, who'd let Ray look through it some lonely summer nights. The kid had shown him Mars, Venus and once, Jupiter.

He walked by the pigeon coop that belonged to 4D, past the empty pots that, come spring, the little Chinese girl in 7A would transform into a container garden and sat down in the wrought iron patio chair that he'd scrounged at a flea market. He lit a cigarette and stared out at the city.

Stella was gone from his life.

His brain knew that. His brain could pinpoint the exact moment she stopped loving him _(the night of the O'Reilly bust)_, had counted the number of arguments they'd had about the divorce _(47)_, and knew the number of days since he'd signed the divorce papers _(233)_.

His heart refused to accept it. Refused to believe she wasn't coming back to him, that she didn't want to have anything to do with him _(...she'll come around, eventually, when she realizes how much she misses me, how much she loves me, how much she needs me...)_.

His body missed the feel of her next to him in their bed, the warm rose-vanilla smell of her skin. It was a physical _ache_ and it'd kept him up more nights than he cared to count.

He loved her more than anything else in the world and he just wanted it to stop _hurting_ so damn much. Maybe someday it would. But tonight, on a rooftop overlooking Chicago, the pain kept him awake until dawn.

-fin-


End file.
